By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The sisters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan were turned away from Adiala Jail on Tuesday for what his family says has become a months-long pattern of denied visits in defiance of a court order granting him regular access to relatives and legal counsel.
Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi arrived at the prison outside Islamabad alongside a group of lawyers and senior leaders of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, including Zafar Gondal, Seemabia Tahir, Usman Jaura, Nadia Khattak and Sadaf Abbasi. Lawyers Awais Younis and Faisal Malik were also present. None were permitted to enter.
The Islamabad High Court has ruled that Khan is entitled to visits twice weekly — on Tuesdays and Thursdays — from family members, attorneys and party associates. His family says jail authorities have flouted that order for several months without explanation.
Speaking to reporters in the heat outside the prison gates, Aleema Khan said she and her sisters would keep coming. “It is our constitutional right to meet Imran,” she said, adding that sustained pressure on the authorities was the only lever available to them. “We will continue to visit Adiala — it is the only way to exert pressure on the powers that be.”
Asked why she had come in the punishing summer heat, she was blunt: “Imran sits there round the clock in the same conditions. I can spend some time here.”
The elder sister renewed her call for Khan’s release, arguing that Pakistan had been in continuous turmoil during the three years he has spent behind bars and that his freedom was necessary to stabilise the country.
Aleema Khan also weighed in on the outcome of recent elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, alleging that results had been manipulated and that state-aligned media had suppressed coverage of unrest in the region. “The people of GB voted in favour of PTI. As a result, people were baton-charged, and PPP and PML-N leaders had to rush to GB,” she said, referring to the rival Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. “Today, there is social media and everyone can see what is happening.”
On political developments in the capital, Aleema Khan said PTI-aligned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was expected to attend parliament on June 12, when the federal budget is scheduled to be tabled.
Last week, in another failed visit to Adiala, Aleema Kha said the only political settlement her family would accept was the restoration of an independent judiciary and the holding of free and fair elections — implicitly rejecting any negotiated arrangement that fell short of those conditions.
Khan, 72, has been held at Adiala Jail since August 2023 and faces multiple criminal cases, which he and his party dismiss as politically motivated. Pakistani authorities have not commented publicly on the access restrictions. Reuters was not immediately able to obtain a response from prison or government officials on Tuesday.
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